As we reported in our New Neighbors series last fall, Downtown Mesa has been changing a lot in recent years. We found both rental and housing prices in the area along Main Street have gone up since the bottom of the Great Recession a decade ago.

And, on Tuesday, Mesa Mayor John Giles made an announcement that the center city is about to get a long-awaited development that will continue this growth. Palladium Enterprises is developing the Grid, a $60 million mixed-use residential, office and restaurant project on Main Street that will being 500 new residents to downtown Mesa. It will be built in an underused parking garage the city owns and partner with CO+HOOTS, a successful coworking community.

Mayor Giles called this a “big deal” on Tuesday, and David Crummey agrees. He's the board chair for Rail Mesa, a nonprofit volunteer organization that works for inclusive and responsible development along the light rail in Mesa.

I got a hold of Crummey earlier this morning on Skype to talk more about what this means for downtown Mesa.